Stocks Log 4-Day Loss, Dow Ends Below 13,000

Stocks accelerated their losses in the final minutes of trading to close sharply in the red for the fourth-straight session Monday after last week's disappointing jobs report raised concerns over the strength of the economy.

Stocks had modestly clawed back from their lows throughout the afternoon after tumbling heavily at the open.

“If the economy is slowing and the pace of jobs growth is slowing, then it’s not consistent with the stock market’s recent rally," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners. “And so I’d expect there to be a selloff that’s going to take us down 5 to 7 percent.”

U.S. payrolls rose far less than expected in March, with employers adding 120,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department. The gain was the smallest increase in five months and fell short of expectations for a gain of 203,000, according to a Reuters poll.

The report cast doubts over the ability of the U.S. to help boost the global economy amid Europe's resurfacing debt crisis woes and worries over China's slowing economy. (Read More: What Slowdown? China Already 'Reaccelerating')

"Considering 70 percent of all jobs created over the past six months are of the low-income variety, seeing this disappointing print doesn't bode well for the health of the U.S. economy," said Todd Schoenberger, managing principal of The BlackBay Group. "Question marks about earnings growth for companies and further acceleration in GDP remain unanswered with [the jobs] data."

Apple reversed their early losses even after BTIG downgraded the tech giant to "neutral" from "buy,"citing possible pricing pressures that may force the company to cut prices on its iPhone and following a sharp runup in the stock this year.

Also among techs, AOL surged after the Internet services company agreed to sell 800 of its patentsand related applications to Microsoft , in a deal valued at about $1.06 billion in cash. At least two brokerages raised their price target on AOL.

Major media companies declined after Citigroup slashed its ratings on CBS , Discovery , Disney and News Corp to "neutral" from "buy." Time Warner also slipped even after Citigroup boosted its price target on the company to $45 from $40.

Earnings season kicks off this week, with Dow component Alcoa slated to post after-the-bell on Tuesday. Google and JPMorgan are also scheduled to report thorughout the week.

“Earnings expectations have been going down, so it’s easier to meet lowered expectations,” noted Landesman. “On the other hand, when earnings aren’t growing quickly, people take down growth rates.”

Avon named Sherilyn McCoy as its new CEO. The cosmetic company's current CEO Andrea Jung will become executive chairman. Last week Avon received an unsolicited $10 billion takeover bidfrom privately-held fragrance company Coty.

Most European markets remained closed for the Easter holiday and are scheduled to reopen for trading Tuesday.